What’s particularly irksome about this is that Obama, a student of history and a law lecturer, has surely thought through the broader ramifications of his decision. Indeed, we know he has, because he eloquently made the case against such executive overreach when another president inhabited the White House.

* Obama should seek Congressional authorization for Libya war: Another important story from Charlie Savage and Thom Shanker: Since handing control to NATO, the U.S. has struck Libyan forces at least 60 times — making it harder to argue that we’re not embroiled in “hostilities.”

* John Boehner under pressure over Libya: The Speaker is facing pressure from freshman Republicans to take real action against Obama’s unauthorized Libya operation — a position, interestingly, also supported by liberal Democrats. The question remains whether Congress will actually force this confrontation to a head by holding a vote to restrict funding. Otherwise, business as usual will continue.

* McKinsey study unmasked: As Paul Krugman notes, we have now learned that the study was basically a poll — which is not a good way to predict how companies will make big decisions about whether to drop health coverage. Yes, yes, yes, but how long until the next person cites it as proof of the Affordable Care Act’s shortcomings?

* Right wing’s Obama-hostile-to-Israel line continues to implode: Conservatives engaged in the deliberate distortion of Obama’s Israel stance have been confidently predicting that it would lead Jewish donors to desert Obama en masse. Not so much: Last night a bunch of them met with Obama and walked away very reassured by what they heard.

* Obama should come out for gay marriage already: Alex Pareene makes the case, and I continue to think this quote from White House press secretary Jay Carney is important in illustrating the untenability of Obama’s current stance:

* Are Republicans open to revenue increases? Even if tax hikes are off the table, House Republicans are signaling openness to new revenues, while Senate Republicans are working overtime to ensure that new revenues removed from the deficit talks.

The mere fact that there’s even a question over whether new revenues will be in the deficit-reduction mix is a sign of just how far to the right the debate has drifted.

* Jon Huntsman enters presidential race: His kickoff speech is this morning, and the question is whether he’ll be able to outdo Mitt Romney in the quest to obscure his previous record of moderation and reasonableness in order to make himself acceptable to GOP primary voters.

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